Our War
by Slidell
Summary: There are wars we fight and everyone sees. Then there are the wars inside ourselves. This is Jack and Sam's war. S/J of course.


**Our War**

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing but my imagination, and even then…non-profit…please enjoy.

**Summary:** One shot attempt to use a few lines that didn't fit into another fic. S/J only. Put it when and where you want after Threads. I'll leave it up to you…like a present!

Sam had roamed the halls for almost an hour before going into the secretary's office. Sure it was suspicious; it was the Pentagon after all. But seeing as she was in the area devoted to the Stargate program, pretty much everyone knew who she was, they weren't going to say anything.

It felt so similar. This time there was no car to sit in however. There was no smoke signaling that he was definitely there…that same feeling was there; somewhere between her heart and her brain, causing more confusion than any equation she had ever worked on. They had agreed to dinner…as friends…co-workers of a sort, so why had she come now? But Daniel and Teal'c were coming tonight too. Maybe that was it. Maybe not.

When she opened the door to the secretary's office her stomach did a flip when she saw red hair looking at a computer screen. She swallowed hard…'please not again'. But the face quickly turned and Sam relaxed if only a smidge. It wasn't enough though. As much as she hated herself she said it.

"Sorry…I must have the wrong office." She closed the door before the secretary could reply and made her first steadfast decision of the day, leaving the Pentagon, and her heart behind her.

Getting out of her cab in front of her hotel she could have kicked herself. Why did she keep doing it to herself. She shook her head as she stepped away from the curb.

"Whatcha doin?" It was impossible. Sam looked up, maybe not so impossible. There he was standing out front of the hotel. His dress jacket was over his arm, he had been waiting for a while to be getting that comfortable.

"Sir? How…what are?"

"Carter, I work in the Pentagon…I know everything now…well, not everything. I'll leave that up to you." His smile made her feel woozy. "So…lunch?"

"I thought we were going to have dinner?"

"So did I. But I said 'lunch'. Come on you and me, catch up before the guys get here." Smiling again…why did he do that?

"Sounds great." It did and her return smile showed it. "I just need to get a jacket first."

"I'll wait."

"Out here?" She questioned wide eyed.

He cleared his throat. "Good point."

There they were, standing in the elevator. All she could think about was the most awkward elevator ride she had ever had, involving humming. Then it poured out. "Why are we doing this?"

"Doing what?"

"This. This constant fight that never ends."

His brown eyes shot from the elevator doors to hers. Testing the water to what she was talking about he tried to reply. "Carter…we can't just sit here and do nothing. There's a war out there and it's up to us to keep this planet safe from it." His reply was too quick. He knew exactly what she was talking about. His appearance outside of her hotel was making more sense as well.

"Not that fight!"

"What?"

"This fight. Not the war with the Goa'uld, not the war with the Replicators, the Ori or the Wraith. THIS war!"

"Oh. Look Carter…now might not be the best time…"

Courage she had never known took her. "No _Jack_. It's now or never. I know this is partially, actually it's probably mostly my fault, but I'm not fighting it anymore."

"OK, time was the wrong word…maybe place, this isn't the best place."

"Oh." Sam looked towards the open elevator doors, flustered.

Jack reached his hand out towards the keypad and punched every button for every floor. "Shall we try this again…Sam?" He gulped. The feeling in the space between Sam's heart and brain was ripping at the same place in him.

The elevator jerked, pulling Sam back to her train of thought. "It's this war that I fight everyday. The one I've been fighting for almost as long as we've been fighting the other one."

Jack took a deep breath. "It's not just your war Sam, it's our war…we've both been fighting this."

She looked to the ground, trying to avoid his deep brown eyes. "But not together." She whispered.

"No, if we were fighting it together" He reached out and gentle raised her head with a finger under her chin that he traced her cheek with before he pulled it back, "Then it wouldn't be a war."

She sniffed as tears had started to form and fall. "How's that?"

"Because if we were together…there would be nothing to fight."

She never lost eye contact again. "I thought it was over when you left."

"That was part of the reason I left." He replied, his voice becoming lower, blending with the whir of the elevator cables.

"Then why didn't you say anything?"

"Because…I was scared." His admittance gained the greatest look of shock from her blue eyes that he had ever seen, which was saying something considering the situations they had survived together.

"Of what? Me? US?"

"Sam, we've been fighting this for so long…I just don't know how to…as hard as a war is, sometimes you just get so use to fighting it, you don't know how to live without it." As odd as it sounded, it made perfect sense; to both of them.

She took one step forward. "I don't want to fight it anymore Jack."

"Me either."

"So."

"So." Jack held out the crook of his arm just as the doors finally opened at the floor still lit, the lobby. "Lunch?"

She laced her arm in his. She didn't need a jacket to keep warm now. "Sounds good to me."

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